Edmund Richardson
University of Durham, United Kingdom
Fragmented, lost, damaged, forged or misread: classical art, in 19th century Britain and America, was a deeply uncertain space. The ancient world played a key role at the heart of literature and culture during this period – it was fundamental to the ways in which societies and elites defined and celebrated themselves. However, recalling it remained a problematic act. The pursuit of classical art was defined by error and misdirection as often as it was by certainty and insight. Rather than dismissing the fragility of the 19th-century’s pursuit of antiquity, this paper asks if misdirection may at times be productive. Is it possible that, under certain circumstances, errors about the past, sometimes parasitical on errors in the past, can be an engine of knowledge? Through a number of case-studies – from iconic works of ancient art to unconvincing forgeries created in haste – this paper explores the role of classical art in shaping attitudes to the past, in 19th century Britain and America. When history collides with pseudo-history – as it did in discourses of classical art throughout the 19th century – how is our knowledge of the past re-shaped?